This past weekend was very nostalgic for me! It was our admitted students weekend here at Johnson. I remember the excitement that I had a year ago when I was on the bus on my way up to Destination Johnson (DJ). My Post About DJ 2011.
DJ went from Friday - Sunday. Thta prior Thursday I drove to the airport to pick up an admitted student who was to stay with me. When he got in, we were going to go bowling but all of the bowling alley's had leagues going on that night. Instead, I called up some of my friends and told them to meet me at The Nines, which is a bar here in Collegetown. My other friend came with an admitted student who he was hosting as well. It was interesting to see the two admitted students get acquainted. It definitely brought back a lot of memories from when I was first getting acquainted to my classmates.
We sat at the bar for about 2 hours and then headed to the "club" here in Ithaca. Initially I wasn't sure if the two admitted students wanted to go as they would have an early morning the next day, but I asked them and they said that they definitely wanted to. So that was definitely cool and I would have said the same thing had I been them. I don't remember what I did the first night I came up for DJ to be honest. I may have called it an early night so I could be so fresh and so clean in the morning.
This Thursday night of DJ was definitely not an early night. There were a couple other admitted students at the bar and every time I would meet one of them I would say "oh... you gotta come meet two of your new classmates." That's pretty much how the night went until a unch of people came over to my place afterwards. This is not a new occurrence as I frequently have people after the bars have closed at 1am. The only difference this time is that I had an admitted student staying with me. I didn't want to keep him up late, but he kept insisting that he was having fun.
The next day was the start of DJ. When the two of us (me and the admitted student) got to Sage (the business school) We both went into the registration room. I had an "OMG" moment when I walked behind the registration table and he stopped to say his name to the person checking folks in. I then went into the atrium to greet and speak with the admitted students. There wasn't anything formal going on at that moment and they were all congregated in the atrium getting to know one another.
I had to leave them to their own vices because I had to complete an application to be a part of the Johnson Admissions Group which is the group that works with admissions where 2nd years become student interviewers. It's probably no secret that this is something that I would want to be a part of right?
After I submitted my application it was time to go on the housing tour. The housing tour basically takes the admitted students around Ithaca, showing them different apartment complexes. I was on the bus with two of my classmates and about 46 admitted students. Again at this point I began to reminisce because I remember who I sat next to last year on that tour - my NOW classmate Brandon. Also while on the bus the three of us current students were talking about life in Ithaca and about our love for Johnson. I definitely remember asking the same questions last year. Soooo crazy....
After the housing tour I believe there was a lot of downtime (a couple of hours). I don't remember what I did. oh yes I do! I was having another admitted student stay with me and he had just gotten off of the bus from NYC so I met up with him and took him back to my place to drop off his stuff before the opening speech from Dean Thomas and the rest of the faculty. I wanted to sit in on that speech but thought that it would be creepy if i crashed their "party." I went home and took a much needed nap!
When I woke up from my nap I had to change into business casual because I had to go to a reception hosted by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the country club near campus later that night. BUT.. before the reception we had Casino night in the atrium! Casino night is just that but not with real money. Instead we use Dean Bucks! I didn't gamble because I wanted to get some food in my stomach. I ate about 5 plates of meatballs - I kid you not! The admitted students were sooooo thrilled to be there. (Well... most of them). It's interesting to see the divide between those folks who are 100% committed to Johnson already and signed apartment leases and those who are still deciding between different schools.
Like Wendy Williams says - "Everything is not for everybody" so I think it's easy to tell who are the people who just don't "fit" with Johnson. It's one thing to convey fit in an essay but another thing to just get here and not "feel it" and that's completely fine! I want everyone who is applying to business school to go to the school that is the best for them! I nor my classmates have any hard feelings towards anyone who doesn't "get it." But I digress...
During Casino night a funny thing happened. I was ICED! Smirnoff ICED! If you don't know what that is - it's when you're literally handed a Smirnoff ice from someone and if you don't have one in your back pocket to give them then you have to chug the one they gave you right there down on one knee. So I was walking by one of my classmate's fiances (or Joint Ventures) as we sometimes refer to them. Anyway she was like 'Richard... can you go in my purse?" Her hands were full so she walked over to me and turned so her purse was in front of me and said "open it" so I obliged and saw the Smirnoff ice in there but it didn't register. So I pulled it out and saw the label and looked her in her eye and said "Wait... did you just ICE ME?1" She started laughing and I'm like OMG I can't believe this lol. So yes I got ICED and here's the proof!
After Casino night it was time to go to the Diversity reception. Last year at this reception I remember winning a prize but they didn't have that raffle going on this year. One of the highlights for me at this reception was being able to talk to an admitted student who is so excited to be coming to Johnson. I first met this admitted student back in December when I saw him, another girl, and another guy standing around at a Sage social. A bunch of us were on our way to head to another bar and I invited those three to come with us. Ironically - they were all at Johnson this past weekend! But yeah, I was speaking to him and I could see the excitement in his eyes when he spoke about his experience thus far going through the process. It brought back memories and he's the type of person that I love meeting because I know that he won't take his experience here at Johnson for granted!
After the diversity reception I went over to a house party given by one of my classmates. It was sooooo crowded but it was fun to see the admitted students unwind. Then we headed to another bar down the street and partied it up all night. I was mostly dancing with the Joint Ventures. Of course after that a bunch of us went to get pizza!
The next day we woke up bright and early and headed to Sage again for breakfast. I was definitely looking forward to breakfast - well more so the coffee at breakfast. I'm not sure how many cups I had but I didn't have a tough day ahead of me. The admitted students were going to be doing a bonding activity. I remember doing the same activity last year except this year I was moderating a team and instructing them on how to do it. I can't give too much away about the activity but it has to do with getting directions for something... working together to do it... then debriefing. What was interesting for me was to moderate the debrief and be able to use the skills that I've learned thus far in b-school to elicit the proper type of conversations from the team.
After the activity it was lunch time. Lunch was good and we basically sat at tables designated by immersion interest, so I was at the marketing table with another 1st year and a 2nd year. I remember sitting next to this one guy who looked familiar and said "did I have you in an information session?" He's like "yeah!" Then I said "you're ____ right?" and he's like "How did you know? Did you look at my nametag?" And I said... "no.... you're ____ from _______ right?" He seemed surprised that I knew that, but I did! We all talked for about an hour and got to know one another.
I went home after lunch to take another nap and get ready for another reception. This reception was for Out For Business and was held at a bar in Collegetown. It was ironic... at this reception I was talking to some of the corporate sponsors from Accenture. One of them recognized my name and said "Richard... you stayed on my couch at DJ last year!" It was so surreal *yet again."
After that reception we had dinner at a students house. So all of the admitted studenst are invited to have dinner at either a 1st year, 2nd year, or AMBA's house. I went to my friend Andrew's house where Lindsay (both Johnson Bloggers) were hosting a dinner. At the dinner was the girl who I had met in December in the trio. She was so excited to be here at DJ. I also had met someone who had reached out to me via my blog and had asked me questions prior to her interview (I think - or maybe I helped her with her essays...) In any event, it was a fun night but the night was just beginning.
The last night of the event was the museum party. We really rent out a whole museum - set up a dj - open bar... and party. This night was fun to say the least and that's all I say about that! LOL..
SO that is pretty much DJ in a nutshell! I can't believe it came and went but I'm glad that it came and went! Next up...
Tonight - We had Amit Bhatia come speak to us.
This weekend - I'm celebrating my 30th Birthday
Next week - Flying to Seattle for an Interview
Next weekend - Headed to Tuck for the MBA World Cup
Next Month - Japan/Korea Trek!
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